Tibetan exile group says at least 30 killed in Chinese crackdown on riots

BEIJING - China ordered tourists out of Tibet's capital Saturday while troops on foot and in armored vehicles patrolled the streets and enforced a strict curfew, a day after riots that a Tibetan exile group said left at least 30 protesters dead.

The protests against Chinese rule of Tibet that began Monday are the largest and most violent in the region in nearly two decades. They have spread to other areas of China as well as neighboring Nepal and India among other countries.

China's governor in Tibet vowed to punish the rioters, while law enforcement authorities urged protesters to turn themselves in by Tuesday or face unspecified punishment.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A bomb exploded in the back garden of an Italian restaurant crowded with foreigners in Pakistan's capital on Saturday, killing a Turkish woman and wounding 11 others, police said.

Personnel from the U.S. and British embassies were among the wounded. It appeared to be the first attack targeting foreigners in a recent wave of violence in Pakistan.

A list of victims was posted in the reception area at Islamabad's Poly Clinic. Five U.S. citizens were listed as undergoing surgery. It said one Japanese, one Canadian, one Briton and three Pakistanis were wounded. Foreigners crowded around the list; some burst into tears.

UN: Less violence provides window of opportunity in Iraq

BAGHDAD - The influx of thousands of U.S. forces has driven down insurgent attacks in Baghdad, but violence elsewhere in Iraq raises questions about whether killings will continue to drop as American forces begin to leave, the United Nations said Saturday.

As security improved in Baghdad, violent attacks spread last year to other parts of the country, including Diyala Province and Mosul, al-Qaida's last urban stronghold, according to the report from the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq.

'The government of Iraq continued to face enormous challenges in its efforts to bring sectarian violence and other criminal activity under control against a backdrop of political instability,' said the report, which examined the last six months of 2007.

'This is a window of opportunity for Iraq,' Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. chief in Iraq, said at a news conference in Baghdad.

Amhadinejad's opponents show strength in voting for parliament

TEHRAN, Iran - Conservative opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a strong showing in Iran's parliamentary elections, according to partial results Saturday. The split could mean frictions between the president and former supporters disillusioned by his fiery, populist rule.

Reformists, meanwhile, claimed to have made better than expected gains even though most of their candidates were thrown out of the race by Iran's clerical leadership.

If reformists succeed in expanding the largely muted bloc of around 40 lawmakers they had in the outgoing parliament, it would be a blow to hard-line attempts to bury the movement, which calls for reducing the power of clerics and opening up to the West.

Investigators were looking into the cause of the Friday night blast in Yunnan province, the Xinhua News Agency said Saturday.

China has the world's deadliest mines, where explosions, cave-ins and floods killed nearly 3,800 people last year.

US veteran returns to My Lai 40 years after massacre

MY LAI, Vietnam - Lawrence Colburn returned to My Lai on Saturday and found hope at the site of one of the most notorious chapters of the Vietnam War.

On the 40th anniversary of the massacre of up to 500 unarmed Vietnamese villagers, the former helicopter gunner was reunited with a young man he rescued from rampaging U.S. soldiers.

On March 16, 1968, Colburn found 8-year-old Do Ba clinging to his mother's corpse in a ditch full of blood and the bodies of more than 100 people who had been mowed down. Nearly all the victims were unarmed women, children and elderly.

'Today I see Do Ba with a wife and a baby,' said Colburn, a member of a three-man Army helicopter crew that landed in the midst of the massacre and intervened to stop the killing. 'He's transformed himself from being a broken, lonely man. Now he's complete. He's a perfect example of the human spirit, of the will to survive.'